Bollywood beauties throng Manish Malhotra’s LFW show

Mumbai, Sep 21 : The thin presence of A-list Hindi film actors had made the Lakme Fashion Week a dull affair. But the event finally witnessed a profusion of filmy glamour on its penultimate day, with a bevy of Bollywood beauties including Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukjerji, Priety Zinta and newcomer Sonakshi Sinha thronging the venue.

Thanks to desginer Manish Malhotra, the A-list actresses along with some of his old favourites like Sangeeta Bijlani, Urmila Matondkar and Sameera Reddy showed up at the venue Monday.

This was not all. Earlier in the day, Sonakshi also walked the ramp in her western avatar flaunting Narendra Kumar Ahmed’s creations.

Even the music fraternity was not behind, while composers Salim and Sulaiman Merchant along with singer Sunidhi Chauhan walked the ramp for designer duo Bhumika and Shyamal Shodhan, playback singer Shaan was the show stopper for Troy Costa, who showcased his western evening wear line.

When LFW began Friday, everyone was expecting a heavy dose of Bollywood stars both on the ramp as well as in the guest gallery. But the audiences, especially the media, were in for a disappointment because no big face showed up. However at the second last show of the day, Sunidhi Chauhan, Esha Koppikar, Diana Hayden, Dipannita Sharma, Tisca Chopra and Vidya Malvade brought some respite.

But it was Mallika Sherawat who lifted the spirits of the LFW by attending designer Anita Dongre’s show as a guest. She came dressed in a yellow organic cotton federate dress from Dongre’s summer 2011 collection.

The second day was leaner in terms of Bollywood presence. The only star attraction was Pooja Batra, who walked the ramp for designer Babita Malkani. The former Indian beauty queen and actress was sporting a long gown. No one else from the tinsel town came down for the event that day.

But the third day brought in some excitement when Chitrangada Singh sashayed down the ramp in Arpan Vohra’s outfit. Model-turned-actress Koena Mitra too got back to her roots when she hit the runway for designer Rajat K. Tangri’s show.

However, the excitement in the air could be felt only towards the evening with the appearance of Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and his wife Jaya Bachchan in the front row for Nachiket Barve’s show.

During the first three days, Amitabh was the only A-lister who had attended the event, giving hopes of greener pastures for people looking for Bollywood celebrities at the event.